Structural design for Erkelenz
Your structural engineer for Erkelenz: what spans, and what carries it
We design and calculate structures for new build and alteration work. Every beam gets its span, every support its bearing length, and you get documents a checking engineer and a site team can both work from.
- Structure
- Timber, steel, concrete, masonry
- Documents
- Ready for the building authority
- Chamber
- Ingenieurkammer Bau NRW
What spans inside a house
Every load bearing element bridges a distance and hands its load to two ends. The order below is the order in which we read a house: from the short lintel to the wide bay with no column in it.
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Span 01 Lintel
Bears onMasonry on both sidesAbove every door and window sits a short bay. The lintel carries the load around the opening and needs enough masonry at both sides to sit on.
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Span 02 Floor bay
Bears onLoad bearing wallsThe floor spans between the load bearing walls. The direction is decided by the shorter distance and by where the supports are, not by the room layout.
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Span 03 Downstand beam
Bears onColumn and wall panelWhen a wall is removed a beam takes over its job. It collects the floor load along a line and sets it down at two points, both of which have to carry it.
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Span 04 Rafter and purlin
Bears onPurlin on postsIn the roof the rafters span from the purlin to the ridge. The purlin is the wide member and stands on posts whose load has to reach the ground.
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Span 05 Column free bay
Bears onTwo bearing pointsOpen ground floors, wide window bands and garages need long bays. Here deflection decides how deep the beam becomes, not the failure load.
NoteSpan and support belong together. A beam that works on paper but sits on too little bearing is still a problem on site.
Tell us which span you want to keep clear. We will tell you what that takes.
Describe your projectWhere the load arrives
A beam is only as good as its two ends. How a support is formed decides the forces in the bay, the deflection, and what the shell contractor actually has to build.
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Support type 01
Pinned
The normal case in housing. The end may rotate and the load goes straight down. The calculation uses the effective span, not the clear opening.
Watch forCheck the bearing length
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Support type 02
Fixed
Cantilevers, balconies and continuous floors are held at the support. A moment appears there, and the reinforcement that takes it belongs at the top, not at the bottom.
Watch forReinforce moments at the top
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Support type 03
Sliding
Long elements have to be allowed to expand. A sliding bearing takes the load and lets the change in length happen, so it does not end up as restraint in the element.
Watch forAvoid restraint
NoteThat is why the working drawings always state both: the force that arrives and the length over which it is passed into the support.
What the office takes on
You can commission single pieces or the whole chain from the first design to the final inspection. Either way the same person stays responsible.
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01
Structural design
Structural calculations and working drawings for every load bearing element in timber, steel, concrete and masonry.
ResultCheckable calculations
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02
Permit documents
Complete building permit documents, so that approval is not held up by a single missing sheet.
ResultApprovable documents
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03
Architectural planning
Planning of detached and multi family houses, from the first sketch to the agreed floor plan.
ResultAn agreed design
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04
Thermal performance
Thermal calculations for new build and existing buildings, with an energy certificate on request.
ResultCertificate and proof
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05
Civil engineering structures
Design and calculation of special structures, including finite element analysis and dynamic simulation.
ResultA calculated special structure
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06
Site supervision
Supervision on building and civil engineering works, with site management on request.
ResultA report from the site
NoteSurveying and digitising existing buildings, as well as preparing tender documents, are also part of the range of services.
The documents you receive
Structural design ends up as paper that other people have to read: the building authority, the checking engineer, the shell contractor and the carpenter. So every document is prepared to be usable without a phone call.
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Structural calculation
The proof element by element, with load assumptions, positions and results, prepared to be checked.
FormAs a booklet and a file
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Position plan
The floor plan with numbers: every position in the text has its place in the house, so nothing is mixed up on site.
FormLocated in the plan
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Formwork drawings
Dimensions, levels and openings for concrete and masonry, so the shell contractor can set the formwork from them.
FormDrawn to scale
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Reinforcement drawings
Position, diameter and length of every bar, together with the bar schedule for ordering.
FormWith a bar schedule
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Support reactions
The forces arriving at each support, for the connection to wall, column and foundation.
FormFigures per support
NoteWhat the site needs is there before the concrete is poured, not afterwards.
Do you need the calculations by a fixed date? Name it in the enquiry straight away.
Name your dateHow a commission runs
Five steps in which it is always clear who is acting. That saves the waiting time nobody planned for.
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Step 01 Who actsYou
Enquiry
You describe the project and send what exists: a design, a floor plan, photographs of the building or even just a sketch.
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Step 02 Who actsThe office
Quotation
We read the documents, clear up the open points and state the scope, the fee and a date.
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Step 03 Who actsThe office
Calculation
Load assumptions, preliminary sizing, proof. Questions to the architect and the client are asked as we go, not at the end.
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Step 04 Who actsThe office and you
Handover
You receive the calculations and the drawings. The version that goes to the checking engineer is the one that lies on the site.
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Step 05 Who actsThe office on site
On site
Supervision on request: reinforcement inspection, checking of the supports and answers to whatever the shell reveals.
NoteIf a date is already fixed, please name it in the enquiry. The order of work follows from it.
The office
Ingenieurbüro Konrad Smoczynski is a design office from the Heinsberg district. It plans and calculates mainly detached and multi family houses, alongside work in structural civil engineering.
The office works together with freelance colleagues, partners and construction firms from North Rhine Westphalia. That has grown into an interdisciplinary network around building, which a project can draw on when it needs more than a calculation.
Detached and multi family houses are the main work, both in planning and in structural design. Site management or site supervision is taken on where wanted, so that design and execution do not drift apart.
In the reference list on the office website no town appears as often as Erkelenz. Documented there are new detached houses, a terraced house and several semi detached pairs.
- One contact from design to final inspection
- Questions get asked, not assumed
- Checkable means readable without a follow up
- Dates are named before they get tight
- Master of Science
- Civil engineering, RWTH Aachen, 2012
- Ingenieurkammer Bau NRW
- Member since 2017, membership number 730097
- Qualified structural designer
- since 2019, authorisation number QT1542
- Building submission rights NRW
- since 2019, authorisation number V3693
- Professional indemnity
- VHV Allgemeine Versicherung AG
The elements, in pictures
Six photographs of the elements this page is about. They show the situations a set of structural calculations describes.
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Fig. 01 Opening with a ring beam Lintel and bearing in masonry -
Fig. 02 Timber roof trusses Rafters, braces and nail plates -
Fig. 03 A concrete frame Columns, beams and floor slabs -
Fig. 04 Rolled sections in the yard Steel beams before installation -
Fig. 05 Precast units stacked Concrete units with a bearing nib -
Fig. 06 Ground slab with connections Slab and starter reinforcement
NoteThe photographs illustrate the elements described. They do not show projects of the office.
From the first drawing to the reinforcement inspection you keep the same contact.
Ask for adviceErkelenz and the Heinsberg district
Erkelenz is not new ground for this office. The town and its villages lie within the everyday working area, and the trip to a site is short enough to come by at short notice.
ReferenceIn the reference list on the office website Erkelenz appears more often than any other town: new detached houses, a terraced house and several semi detached pairs.
Beyond Erkelenz the office works across the Heinsberg district and the neighbouring Rhineland, among others in Wassenberg, Hückelhoven, Heinsberg, Jüchen and Neuss.
Places in the service area
- Erkelenz
- Lövenich
- Katzem
- Kückhoven
- Gerderath
- Golkrath
- Granterath
- Hetzerath
- Holzweiler
- Schwanenberg
- Venrath
- Oestrich
- Mennekrath
- Wockerath
- Wassenberg
- Hückelhoven
- Heinsberg
- Wegberg
NoteA site meeting takes one phone call. Tell us where the plot is and when you are there.
Common questions
What clients in Erkelenz ask most often.
Do I need structural calculations for an opening in a load bearing wall?
Yes. As soon as a load bearing wall is opened, the load has to be carried around the opening. A beam is sized for it, and it is shown that the remaining pieces of wall can take the support reactions.
When should I bring in the structural engineer?
Ideally once the design stands and before the permit application is written. Spans, column positions and wall thicknesses can then still be settled without redesigning.
What do structural calculations cost?
The fee follows the scope and the difficulty of the structure and is set out by the German HOAI fee scale. We can quote reliably once we have seen the design.
What do you need from me for a quotation?
Floor plans, sections and elevations, as files if possible, plus whether a soil report exists. For alterations, photographs and dimensions of the existing building help.
Do you also prepare the permit application?
Yes. The office prepares complete building permit documents and holds building submission rights in North Rhine Westphalia.
Do you calculate timber and steel as well?
Yes. Roof structures, timber joist floors, steel beams and reinforced concrete are all part of the work, as are special structures in civil engineering.
Do you come out to the site in Erkelenz?
On request, yes. Site supervision on building and civil engineering works is part of the service, from the reinforcement inspection to sorting something out on the spot.
Enquiry
Describe your project in a few sentences. We will come back with questions or straight away with a proposal for the next step.
- Telephone +49 2432 907 93 00
- Email info@ks-ingenieur.de
- Address Leichweg 3, 41849 Wassenberg
- Main website ks-ingenieur.de
This helps us at first glance
- Where the project is and what it is
- A floor plan or sketch, if you have one
- New build or existing building
- When you need the documents